[sustran] Re: Banaglore-Mysore Highway/India/Sustran

[Subramaniam Vincent]

Dear Pendakur,

I'm a resident of Bangalore, a local. Further to the points
raised, saying NO to the Bangalore-Mysore expressway does not
mean saying NO to road development, at all.  Of course, the
promoters of the BMIC project would do all they can to have
citizens of the region believe that.

It's a standard tactic that essentially promotes this
project to be some sort of panacea, the way Enron-Dabhol was
promoted by inflating power projections for Maharashtra in the
early 90s.

Saying NO to BMIC makes sense because cheaper and perhaps
more sensible highway expansion alternatives between
Bangalore-Mysore have not just been shelved in the past,
but have cleverly been left out of state highway development
projects to make way for BMIC. [review www.indiatogether.org/campaigns/bmic,
as you probably already have]

The stance of the state government concerning the cheaper road
development alternatives seems to be changing at least in terms
of press statements issued, if you look at the recent developments.
But press statements don't mean a whole lot, if you look at the
track record. Again the website above has this as well.

-Subbu Vincent

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
[mailto:owner-sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org]On Behalf Of ESG, INDIA
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 12:00 AM
To: sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
Cc: In T S Reddy; In Sudarsanam Padam (h); In S L Dhingra; In Ramachander
Adi; In P. K. Sikdar; In KAVenkataram Setty; In K. Sundararajan; In Geetam
Tewari; In Dr. P. Anand; In Cse Anil Agarwal; In Cirt Sanjay Singh; In Chrd
BCS Kumar; In Bharat Indu Singal; In Avinash Sarna
Subject: [sustran] Re: Banaglore-Mysore Highway/India/Sustran


Dear Pendakur,

Thank you for your reaction to our note.  We are certainly as worried as you
are about the conditions 'in the "largest democracy into world"?'.  The BMIC
Project is an absolute reflection of what is wrong with our decision making
processes and details are archived at www.indiatogether.org/campaigns/bmic

Whilst we appreciate your supportive stand on building our railway
infrastructure better, I must admit that the point about why business people
prefer not to use is not very clear.  Yes the freight rates were a big
concern over time, but with innovative practices, such as in the Konkan
Railway, where lorries climb onto to specially developed carriages for a
small fee, the costs of freight transport has been found to be advantageous
to all, and there is less load on the NH-17, which incidentally has had a
high accident rate (sorry about this long sentence).  We believe similar
progressive practices on the Bangalore Mysore sector would help in reducing
traffic loads and make travel safer.

Finally, we are not saying NO to road development between these fast growing
cities.  In fact we are in support of the proposal to widen the existing
road.  Mr. Kisan Mehta's suggestions on this issue are well taken, and
integrating raised pavements should safeguard the interests of pedestrians,
cyclists, bullock carts, and a variety of other users.  Clearly, India is
not a country that can leapfrog into German or US standard highways, for
such high involvement of private vehicle use is meaningless in our economic
and cultural contexts.  One may even argue that given the future of travel
and transport in India is with public transport, developing expressways
would only serve a very very small section of the society at the cost of
everyone else.

My opinions surely are antithetical to yours, I agree, but these are based
on some deep reflections and analysis of being a constant road user here.

Leo Saldanha